BERLIN (Reuters) - Slightly more people were out of a job in Germany in August than a month earlier but the unemployment rate remained near its lowest level since Germany reunited more than two decades ago, data showed on Thursday.

Joblessness rose by some 7,000 to 2.943 million in seasonally adjusted terms in August, the Labour Office data showed.

That compared with the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of 22 economists for a drop of 5,000. The jobless rate stayed close to a post-reunification low at 6.8 percent.